Bush tries to put Saudi envoy at ease

President focuses on strained ties

August 28, 2002|By Bob Kemper, Tribune national correspondent.

CRAWFORD, Texas — Amid growing concern that divisions with Saudi Arabia over Iraq and other issues are threatening U.S. interests in the Middle East, President Bush met Tuesday with the Saudi ambassador as part of an effort to smooth relations with the key strategic and economic ally.

Bush welcomed Prince Bandar bin Sultan to his Texas ranch after telephoning Crown Prince Abdullah, the sitting ruler of Saudi Arabia. Bush told Abdullah that recent anti-Saudi statements coming from the United States, some of which have been embraced in Bush's own Pentagon, do not reflect Bush's desire for an "eternal friendship" with the kingdom.

The White House emphasizes the importance of relations with Saudi Arabia even as the agenda for the Bush-Bandar meeting underscored the vast array of issues that divide the two nations, from child custody cases to Bush's call for the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"We don't agree necessarily on every issue," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington. "There are points that we pursue with them and they pursue with us. But overall, the U.S.-Saudi relationship is solid."

The relationship affords the United States with relatively cheap oil and a base for military operations in the Middle East. On the Saudi side, it provides a measure of security and improves the ruling family's standing among pro-West moderates in Saudi Arabia.

Suspicions about Saudi Arabia have increased in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks; 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. The forceful U.S. response to those attacks and Bush's stated plans to expand the war on terrorism to include nations that support terrorists has further fueled anti-American sentiments in Saudi Arabia.

Bush and Bandar did not discuss all matters pending between their countries, administration officials said. Among the topics not addressed in the hourlong meeting, officials said, was whether U.S. forces could use Saudi air bases for a strike against Iraq.

The Saudis allowed the U.S. to use the bases during the Persian Gulf war. But to dramatize their opposition to another U.S. attack on Iraq, Saudi officials have said no U.S. planes would be allowed to use the bases or fly over Saudi airspace.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said after the meeting that Bush saw no need to raise the base issue because he has not decided whether to attack Iraq.

It also was clear that Bush and Bandar had not resolved the current standoff between the FBI and the Saudi government over terrorist suspect Saud Abdulaziz Saud al-Rasheed, who turned himself in to Saudi officials when he learned that the FBI was investigating possible ties to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Prince Abdullah, indicated after the meeting that the Saudis have no intentions of turning over al-Rasheed.

Replay of positions

"Everything that we have in terms of information we'll pass on to the United States," al-Jubeir said on CNN. "If the United States has any questions, which I'm sure they have, there is a process that we have between our two countries that allows them to do so, where they get the information they want without violating issues of national sovereignty."

Saudi Arabia's decision, which angered U.S. officials, is a replay of the positions it took in similar cases involving terror suspects. Following the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment complex in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. airmen, the Saudi government refused to allow the FBI to participate in the investigation or question suspects.

On Iraq, Saudi officials say an unprovoked strike against Hussein would destabilize the region. But Bush, Fleischer said, "made very clear again that he believes that Saddam Hussein is a menace to world peace . . . and that the world and the region will be safer and better off without Saddam Hussein."

Bush used the meeting to try to quell Saudi concerns over escalating anti-Saudi rhetoric in the United States. In July a policy analyst from the RAND Corp. told an advisory panel at the Pentagon that the U.S. should confront Saudi Arabia over its ties to terrorist groups.

"The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader," the analyst said.

Analyst's views disclaimed

Bush told the crown prince that the statement "had nothing to do with the views of any senior-level government administration officials, including himself," Fleischer said.

Bush and Bandar also discussed proposals to bring peace to the Middle East, an issue on which the Saudis criticize Bush for what they see as one-sided support of Israel, and the rebuilding of Afghanistan, which Bush contended has been hampered by countries failing to pay the money they pledged toward reconstruction.

Saudi Arabia pledged more than $100 million but has "fallen far short" of that, one senior administration official said.

Despite the already hefty collection of gripes and concerns shared by the two nations, Bush for the first time raised another matter with Bandar: Child custody cases involving American and Saudi citizens.

Saudi custody laws favor Saudi fathers over non-Saudi mothers and are preventing some children from coming to the United States, the State Department said.

Bandar arrived at Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch with his wife and six of his eight children in a motorcade that included a purple bus. After the two leaders met, Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and the Bandar family had lunch. Bush then took Bandar and his wife on a pickup truck tour of his 1,600-acre ranch, a dusty, bumpy perk experienced by only a handful of world leaders.